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Edmund Walsingham

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Arms of Walsinghham of Scadbury, Kent: Gules bezantée, a cross couped chequy argent and azure[1]

Sir Edmund Walsingham (c. 1480 – 10 February 1550) of Scadbury Hall, Chislehurst in Kent, was a soldier, Member of Parliament, and Lieutenant of the Tower of London during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Origins

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Remains of Scadbury Hall, seat of the Walsingham family

He was the eldest son and heir of James Walsingham (1462-1540) of Scadbury by his wife Eleanor Writtle (pre-1465 - post-1540), the daughter and heiress of Walter Writtle of Bobbingworth in Essex.[2] Sir Edmund, according to a monumental brass formerly in the church at Scadbury, had three brothers and seven sisters, including:[3][4]

Early origins

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Although the Walsingham pedigree is said to date to the thirteenth century, the family is first recorded in the County of Kent in 1424, when Thomas I Walsingham purchased the manor of Scadbury. The descent was as follows:

  • Thomas I Walsingham (d.1457) a wealthy wine and cloth merchant in the City of London who served as a Member of Parliament for Wareham in 1410 and for Lyme Regis in 1413, both in Dorset.[13] He married Margaret[14] Bamme, daughter and heiress[15] of Henry Bamme, of the City of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.[16] He purchased the manor of Scadbury in the parish of Chislehurst,[17] to which additional land was added in 1433.[18]
  • Thomas II Walsingham (1436–1467), son and heir, who married Constance Dryland (died 14 November 1476), a daughter of James Dryland, of Davington, by whom he had a son, James Walsingham (1462 – 10 December 1540). Constance survived him and remarried to John Green, who in 1476 was Sheriff of Kent in right of his wife.[3]
  • James Walsingham, son and heir, who married Eleanor Writtle (born before 1465, died after 1540), the daughter and heiress of Walter Writtle of Bobbingworth, Essex,[2] by whom, according to a monumental brass formerly in the church at Scadbury, he had four sons and seven daughters, [3][4] the eldest of whom was Sir Edmund Walsingham (d.1550), the subject of this article.

Career

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St Nicholas' church, Chislehurst, where Sir Edmund Walsingham was buried

Walsingham entered the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey (later 3rd Duke of Norfolk), and was knighted by him on 13 September 1513, four days after the decisive English victory over the Scots at the Battle of Flodden, in which the English army was commanded by Surrey's father Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. In 1520 he was part of the Kent contingent accompanying King Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in Calais in June, and at the King's meeting with the Emperor Charles V at Gravelines in July.

In 1521 he was appointed a sewer in the royal household, was made a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers, was on the jury which tried and convicted Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham,[2] and succeeded Sir Richard Cholmondeley as Lieutenant of the Tower of London at a salary of £100 a year. He held the office until Henry VIII's death in 1547,[19] residing in a house at the Tower, and taking personal charge of prisoners of state, among them Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, Catherine Howard, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, Anne Boleyn, Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More.[20][21][22] It was to Walsingham that More made his jest on ascending the scaffold, "I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself".[2][23]

In the 1530s Walsingham acquired long-term leases of the manors of Tyting in Surrey and Stanground in Huntingdonshire, and in 1543 purchased the manors of Swanton Court, West Peckham and Yokes near Scadbury from Sir Robert Southwell. In 1539, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the king granted him nine houses in London, former monastic property.[21][24]

In 1544 he became vice-chamberlain to Henry VIII's sixth wife, Katherine Parr.[25][2] He was elected to Parliament as a Knight of the Shire for Surrey in 1545.[20][21]

Marriages and issue

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Walsingham married twice:

First marriage

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Firstly he married Katherine Gounter (or Gunter) (before 1495 – c. 1526), widow of Henry Morgan of Pencoed, Monmouthshire, and a daughter of John Gounter of Chilworth, Surrey, by his wife Elizabeth Attworth (or Utworth), a daughter and heiress of William Attworth,[20] by whom he had four sons and four daughters:[2][26][27][28]

Second marriage

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He married secondly, Anne Jerningham, a daughter of Sir Edward Jerningham (died 6 January 1515) of Somerleyton, Suffolk, by his wife Margaret Bedingfield (died 24 March 1504). At the time of her marriage to Sir Edmund Walsingham, Anne Jerningham was the widow of three successive husbands: Lord Edward Grey (died before 1517), eldest son and heir of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and grandson of King Edward IV's wife, Elizabeth Woodville; Henry Barley (died 12 November 1529) of Albury, Hertfordshire; and Sir Robert Drury, Speaker of the House of Commons.[39][40][41][42][43]

Death and burial

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Walsingham died on 9 February 1550 and was buried in "a table tomb, richly ornamented with roses, acorns and foliage gilt"[44] in the Scadbury chapel in the church of St Nicholas at Chislehurst.[45] His son and heir, Thomas Walsingham, erected a monument to his memory in 1581; the inscription begins:[20][46]

A knight sometime of worthy fame,
Lieth buried under this stony bower,
Sir Edmund Walsingham was his name,
Lieutenant he was of London Tower.

His will, dated 8 February 1550, was proved on 8 November of that year.[20]

References

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  1. ^ C. R. Councer, Heraldic Painted Glass in the Church of St. Lawrence, Mereworth, Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol.77, 1962, pp.48-62, esp. p.50 et seq [1]
  2. ^ a b c d e f Robison 2004.
  3. ^ a b c Robertson 1880, p. 390.
  4. ^ a b Metcalfe 1879, p. 622.
  5. ^ Robertson 1880, p. 401.
  6. ^ Adams, Bryson & Leimon 2004.
  7. ^ Nichols 1866, pp. 51–54.
  8. ^ Burke & Burke 1844, p. 30.
  9. ^ Baker 2004.
  10. ^ Metcalfe 1879, p. 543.
  11. ^ Metcalfe 1878, pp. 141, 340.
  12. ^ a b Crisp 1907, pp. 170–3.
  13. ^ Woodger, L.S., biography of Walsingham, Thomas (d.1457), of London, published in History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993 [2]
  14. ^ Robertson 1880, p. 403.
  15. ^ Margaret Bamme was an heiress as the arms of Bamme were subsequently quartered by the Walsingham family. See File:HeraldicEastWindow StLawrence'sChurch Mereworth Kent.jpg(Source: C. R. Councer, Heraldic Painted Glass in the Church of St. Lawrence, Mereworth, Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol.77, 1962, pp.48-62, esp. p.50 et seq [3])
  16. ^ "Brief history of Scadbury".
  17. ^ Scadbury Manor Retrieved 15 June 2103.
  18. ^ Lee 1899, p. 228.
  19. ^ Robison says he relinquished it in 1543.
  20. ^ a b c d e Lee 1899, pp. 228–30.
  21. ^ a b c Walsingham, Sir Edmund (by 1480–1550), of Scadbury, Chislehurst, Kent, History of Parliament Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  22. ^ Wilson, Derek (25 July 2013). Sir Francis Walsingham: Courtier in an Age of Terror. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 9781472112484.
  23. ^ Bridgett 1891, p. 434.
  24. ^ 'Parishes: West Peckham', The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 5 (1798), pp. 56–70 Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  25. ^ p.165, Linda Porter, Katherine the Queen
  26. ^ Bannerman 1899, pp. 11, 33.
  27. ^ Arnold 1871, p. 3.
  28. ^ Walsingham, Sir Edmund (by 1480–1550), of Scadbury, Chislehurst, Kent, History of Parliament Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  29. ^ Walsingham, Thomas (c.1526–84), of Scadbury, Chislehurst, Kent, History of Parliament Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  30. ^ Guildford, John (by 1508–65), of Hemsted, Kent, History of Parliament Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  31. ^ Burke & Burke 1838, p. 40.
  32. ^ Rokewode 1838, p. 131-3.
  33. ^ Saunders, Thomas (by 1513–65), of London and Charlwood, Surrey, History of Parliament Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  34. ^ Sir Francis Walsingham had a sister named Eleanor (died before 1542) who married Sir William Sharington, with whom Sir Edmund Walsingham's daughter, Eleanor, is confused in some sources.
  35. ^ Brydges 1812, p. 377.
  36. ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 169.
  37. ^ Bannerman 1899, p. 11.
  38. ^ Old Lackham House 1902, pp. 60, 62.
  39. ^ According to some sources, Anne Jerningham is also said to have been the widow of a fifth husband surnamed Berkeley, about whom nothing further is known.
  40. ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 93.
  41. ^ Hyde 2004.
  42. ^ Challen 1963, pp. 5–9.
  43. ^ 'Anne Jerningham', A Who’s Who of Tudor Women: I-J, compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson to update and correct Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England (1984) Archived 5 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  44. ^ Dugdale 1835, p. 468.
  45. ^ Hutchinson, Robert (2007) Elizabeth's Spy Master: Francis Walsingham and the Secret War that Saved England. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-84613-0, p. 296
  46. ^ Lysons 1796, p. 351.

Bibliography

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